Here’s what Google’s Fuchsia OS looks like on the Pixelbook

Google currently has two operating systems (OS) on the market — Chrome OS and Android — but the search giant is also unofficially working on a third unannounced OS called Fuchsia.

At the beginning of the year, Google added the Pixelbook as the official test device for its mysterious Fuchsia operating system. It took only three weeks before ArsTechnica was able to get the operating system up and running on a Pixelbook, Google’s recently released Chrome OS-powered laptop.

Taking a look at the lock screen, the time is placed front and centre, with an ‘X’ icon near the bottom right of the display. Tapping the X brings up shortcuts for ‘Wi-Fi,’ ‘Login’ and ‘Guest,’ but as of right now all of the links are broken. Moving past the lockscreen and onto the home screen, the time/date, Wi-Fi indicator and battery information are all found in the middle of the screen. Note that the card-based Armadillo user interface is still running on Fuchsia.

Below the Google Search bar and notification cards displays a contact’s a birthdays, how long it takes to get to a restaurant and Google Now-like cards. Tapping the Fuchsia logo at the top launches volume and brightness sliders, the airplane mode toggle, do not disturb and auto-rotate.

Apps or web pages opened appear at the top and users can move them around and open them up in split-screen mode.

Fuchsia is still its pre-alpha stages and many of the things seen will likely change.

ArsTechnica played with the unreleased OS last May and only was able to have it function on top of the Android OS. When the team showcased Fuchsia it worked more like an app than an actual operating system.

At the time it looked cool, it was completely card-based and had a multi-window system. However, it was mostly placeholder graphics and didn’t actually function.

Source: ArsTechnica